blogging

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Information, tips and guidelines for making your blog effective and worth reading

Good blogging made simple

Published 18 February, 2012 | By TashWord

Blogging can be fun, it takes time, it can have great rewards for a business. For some, like me, thinking of topics and writing blog posts is fairly easy; for others, writing blog posts can be hard and nerve-wrecking.

So here are ten quick tips to give you confidence that your blog posts are going to work for you, not against you.

use a spell checker (within the blog software or elsewhere) and a grammar checker (tied in with many spell checkers now anyway)
read your blog post out loud as you proof read it – your tongue will stumble over mistakes you may otherwise miss
whenever possible, leave a day or two between writing and proof reading and editing your posts
relax and be yourself – a blog should show some personality and make the business human. A professional image does not mean you have to be stuffy and intellectual
write for humans, not search engines. It is important to include keywords but not at the expense of making the content easy to read
if you have little to say on the topic, write a short post – don’t add a lot of fluff and nonsense just to make it look longer
if a post is getting very long, consider dividing it into two or three posts – it’s easier to read, more visually appealing and you get more posts for not much extra effort!
ask questions and invite comments – the interaction can lead many places and adds a new dimension to your blog. Reply to comments, too, but that comes after writing the posts!
make the post easy on the eye – use sub-headings, images, bullet points, short sentences and short paragraphs as appropriate
make sure facts and opinions are clearly shown as such – facts need to be accurate and you don’t want anyone thinking your opinions are presented as facts. For your opinions, make them real – it’s ok t be controversial as long as your stand suits your brand

As you build confidence, there are many more things you can do for your blog but getting started and attracting readers is the first and shot critical step. Good luck, and enjoy blogging!

Posted in blogging | Tagged blog, content, simple, tips | 7 Comments

Making topics seasonal

Published 12 January, 2012 | By TashWord

My January enewsletter resulted in the question of how to make your blog or newsletter topic seasonal occasionally to generate timely interest and show an external connection.

Don’t assume you can only use major events (like Christmas, the end of financial year and Mothers Day) for a seasonal flavour to your blog and newsletter. Find seasonal things throughout the year that are relevant for your clients – especially things around times when your marketing may need an extra boost.

Here is a list of seasonal examples I’ve though of to get your creativity flowing…

at the start of summer, a hairdresser writing a hair care blog can discuss protecting hair from chlorine and salt
many businesses can find a new year’s link – make a resolution to get fit, sort out your accounts, update your will, care for your heath (quit smoking, visit a dentist, get your eyes tested, etc), buy new tyres or learn something new are just a few possibilities. Write about what is possible and give tips on how to achieve it
a car detailer could write a newsletter article on how to make a car nice before taking out someone special on Valentines Day
anyone in security (including computer security) can give blog tips on protecting empty homes and offices leading up to major holidays (Christmas, Australia Day and Easter for instance) when people won’t be at home
any business can support an awareness or fundraising event so write about your efforts even if not directly related to your goods or services – e.g. give a discount to all new parents during world breastfeeding week, offer a part of profits to the cancer council in Movember. Use the newsletter article or blog post to explain why the cause matters. The event or cause may not be related to your industry but make sure it does align with your brand and company beliefs.
write blog posts and newsletter pieces about clients or suppliers who do community work around a specific event (such as a client who shaves for ‘shave for a cure’ or a cafe who hosts a ‘biggest morning tea’)
in September or October, a VA could write about spring cleaning a filing system and a ducting specialist can write about the importance of cleaning heating ducts
a nutritionist could explain the benefits of hen eggs over chocolate eggs around Easter time
a physio interested in RSI topics will find plenty of examples during January with the Hopman Cup, Brisbane International and Australian Open underway
a town planner has the Tour Down Under and Tour de France to inspire blog posts about including bike paths in developments
Clean up Australia Day is a great time to post about reducing clutter (any organisers or storage solution people?) and cleaning (cleaners, cleaning product sellers and chimney sweeps)
a conservationist can give non-paper wrapping tips in December and environmentally friendly cleaning ideas for Clean up Australia Day or spring cleaning – in an electronic (not paper) newsletter of course!

What creative seasonal ties have you used in your blog posts and newsletter articles?

Posted in blogging, newsletter content | Tagged article, blog, creative, seasonal, topic | Leave a comment

No to under construction sites

Published 5 November, 2011 | By TashWord

I honestly thought most people online know that an ‘under construction’ website is not a good move. Search engines don’t give any credibility to sites with nothing more than a ‘coming soon’ message and people don’t like wasting their time on such sites.

As I posted about in my ‘starting a website’ series, it is very easy to put a simple web page as a temporary site while a full site is being developed. This way you can get onto search engine lists, provide some interest and begin marketing efforts.

So I was very surprised this morning to visit a site I had received an email about.

The homepage has a nice background but twice stated ‘under construction’ as well as ‘temporarily unavailable’ and ‘coming soon’ – that’s a lot of repetition in eight short sentences (one of which was ‘please be patient!”) Other than the business name as a heading, there was no information about what the business does and no real content.

Given I was making a decision about the company, this wasn’t good marketing for them. They didn’t include contact details but at least there were links to their twitter account and email.

Oh, there was no twitter user name or email address attached to the links, so their credibility fell further.

However, the biggest shock was when I clicked on the link in the footer which I assumed was their designer but thought may give me some information. It wasn’t their designer but a site selling ‘under construction’ themes for blogs! People are spending money on pretty backgrounds to put up words that may hurt (and certainly won’t help) their online reputation.

If you’ve been online for a while, does this shock you as much as it does me?

If you are looking at getting your business online, please don’t waste your money on a template or designer offering under construction pages. A plain page with an introduction and contact details will work much, much better.

What did you do while your site was being developed?

Posted in blogging, business info & tools, marketing | Tagged crediblity, information, template, under construction | 5 Comments

Blogging about FOOD…

Published 18 October, 2011 | By TashWord

I like to make a difference, to contribute to my community and the world. So I like to DO things when I can, and joining Blog Action Day each year is a small action that I aim for.

Blog action day is about many people discussing a topic at the same time to get greater awareness – for example, posting about ‘green’ business practices in 2009 was part of making people think about climate change.

This year’s theme is food which doesn’t seem quite as relevant to a business and communications blog – but I see that as challenge rather than a reason to not blog! Yes, I am doing this two days late but I adding my voice to food blogging day.

What about you – could you find some relevant content to blog about food?

Home-grown food

The flavour and pleasure of fresh fruit and vegetables is always superior to store-bought equivalents – the apples off the tree in my yard last summer were delicious and I even enjoyed then stewed (I normally avoid cooked apples).

But there are more benefits than just yummier food when you grow fruit and vegetables at home:

I know the food is free of additional chemicals
the food is high in nutrients because it is fresh and grown with natural fertilisers
it is lovely to look out my window and see the crops
fruit trees shade my office windows in summer but let the winter sun through – making my office a comfortable temperature naturally
the occasional care for the garden gets me outside in the fresh air, moving and getting in touch with nature – all of which is good for my mental and physical health
home-grown is cheaper, and with prices sky rocketing this year, that is a growing benefit
it reduces my family’s food miles which is excellent for the planet

Paul Hassing recently posted how changing food habits can also be good for business (namely it reduces his stress so he can work more effectively) and I would agree with that.

I also see another business lesson from home-grown food.

Home-grown food tastes great, is more interesting and has a number of advantages. So is original business material.

Do you prefer to read an article or web page that is the same (or practically the same) as 100 others or an original piece that gives you new information or a new perception?

Are you more attracted to a tailored website or one that is based on a template you’ve seen 20 times already today?

Letters and emails addressed to you by name and include something personal are much more effective than a standard letter addressed to “Dear sirs”.

A landscape designer who uses the same layout regardless of block shape and aspect won’t be as successful as one who designs a unique garden every time.

The chef staying to the same old recipes and copying other’s presentation will never be a master chef.

And so on. The point is to use home-grown ideas and skills rather than going for the mass-produced, lack-of-variety style – the results are more interesting, flavoursome and fulfilling.

What do you think – are home-grown food and home-grown business behaviours more appealing and rewarding?

Posted in blogging, business info & tools, marketing | Tagged blog action day, food, home-grown, interesting | 3 Comments

Saving moderating time

Published 7 October, 2011 | By TashWord

Part of running a community-centric blog is moderating the comments. I mentioned that it is a time consuming task when I gave the reasons for moderating so today I’m sharing some ideas for saving time when moderating comments on your blog.

In no particular order, here are my tips:

ensure you have a spam filter on your blog so the really obvious spam is off your list to moderate
consider outsourcing the comment moderation. However, make sure you still look often so you can reply to any comments or have your support person tell you if there is a comment waiting for your reply
set up some rules so certain people’s comments are automatically accepted – they see their comment instantly and you save a little time. You may do this for a select group or perhaps for everyone who has had a comment accepted in the past
have a procedure that includes rules for your blog as this will save you time in deciding if a comment is acceptable. For example, they must have a real name not a tagline as their username, use a real URL not a shortened URL and can only include a link if genuinely adding to the conversation.

Do you have any other tips for saving time with your comments?

Posted in blogging | Tagged comments, filter, moderate, spam, time | Leave a comment

The grammar of blog headings

Published 6 October, 2011 | By TashWord

It may seem like a strange blog heading, the grammar of blog headings, but I was asked the question so here is my answer!

The heading or title of a blog post is usually the first thing someone will see and has a huge impact on whether anyone reads the actual content of the post, and therefore on the success of that blog post. Making it enticing is worth spending some time on, and you don’t want to undo those efforts by using inappropriate grammar and spelling.

So what is the correct format for a blog heading?

Do not write it all in capital letters – that is considered to be yelling and therefore arrogant, plus it is harder to read anyway
Unless you have a formal and old-fashioned brand style, use sentence case rather than title case for the heading – that is, use as few capital letters as is necessary
Use basic grammar and punctuation rules such as a capital letter for a noun, match plural/singular nouns and verbs, and put apostrophes in the correct places
Check all words are spelt correctly
Make sure the title makes sense. Titles can sometimes have fewer words than an equivalent sentence (e.g. ‘the grammar of blog headings’ is fine for a title but in the body of a post I need to add more such as ‘the grammar of a blog heading can impact on your credibility.’) but include enough words to convey the meaning (I couldn’t use ‘The grammar blog headings’ for instance)

Have you noticed bad grammar in any titles? How did that impact on you reading that blog post (or article)?

Posted in blogging, grammar & details, writing | Tagged blog, grammar, heading, title | 7 Comments

Moderating blog comments counts

Published 30 September, 2011 | By TashWord

Moderating comments* left on your blog is just another time-consuming task, right?

It one sense yes it is – if you get a lot of spam it can be very tedious to check comments regularly, and moderating does take time that you may want to spend doing income-producing tasks.

However, there are a number of benefits to moderating your comments rather than just accepting any your spam filter allows through. I was just reminded of this after reading a post on a high traffic blog and seeing an obvious spam comment in amongst a number of real comments – along with no replies to the commenters, the spam just made her look lazy and disinterested.

So my quick list of reasons to moderate blog comments is:

it gives you the opportunity to immediately reply to genuine comments and build your community
you look interested in the blog and its readers
you protect your readers from potentially dangerous links (most spam comments are about getting more links to dubious sites)
you will sometimes find fantastic comments accidentally treated as spam by filters
you can maintain the brand and tone of your comments. For example, you can keep people from using vulgar or hateful language, stop people attacking each other and accept only realistic and appropriate negative comments. You may reject comments completely or edit specific comments to suit if they contain a worthwhile message

Moderating comments is an easy task that you can do at the end of the working day or when you need a mental break, or you could outsource it to save time (but be sure to review yourself to answer comments).

Do you moderate comments or just let them go live?

* Moderating comments simply means looking at each comment and deciding if will go live on your site, or not. There is usually a comments section in your administration area where it is easy to view pending comments and deal with them as you wish.

Posted in blogging, social media | Tagged blog comments, interested, moderating | 9 Comments

Reply to blog comments

Published 23 September, 2011 | By TashWord

Well the title says it all really – it is important to reply to the comments left on your blog.

I just read a blog post today that had a dozen or so comments from various people, including a question for clarification on an aspect of the post topic, without one reply from the blogger. The post was a few weeks old so she’s had time to reply – and the post was actually about how to deal with negative blog comments!

So what happens when you don’t reply to comments people take the time to leave for you?

you look arrogant and rude, especially if you’ve written any questions or invitations for responses
you miss the opportunity to discuss the topic further and get others’ input
you miss the opportunity to show further knowledge, expertise and generosity by answering questions that come up in the comments
you appear lazy and/or disinterested in what your readers have to contribute
you give other people the last word – and if their words are negative it could damage your brand
you don’t give the impression that you want to build a community which is a large aspect of blogging in the first place
you reduce the number of back links from your site (people won’t be inspired to comment and leave links if you aren’t answering them) which hinders your SEO potential of a blog
answering comments and engaging in a healthy discussion often gathers momentum and additional attention (e.g. people share the link via social media and bookmark sites) so a lack of comments may limit your exposure further
you may just miss out on building relationships with some great people – some of whom may become clients, suppliers or friends

So I go back to the title of this post – reply to the comments people leave on your blog. And reply as soon as practical, too.

What do you think when you see a blog without replies to comments?

Posted in blogging, marketing, social media | Tagged blog comments, build relationship, opportunity, reply | Leave a comment

Must your website be interactive?

Published 13 September, 2011 | By TashWord

In a series of 10 posts, we have looked at the steps required to get your business online. Hopefully you’ve seen that getting a website up doesn’t have to be hard or very expensive, and that it can provide a lot of value to your business.

Up to a few years ago, that would be all you’d have to do to get a website up and running – with good content and links, it would probably have done quite well.

Now you will hear that people have higher expectations and that static (i.e. simple web pages that are one way only) sites are not effective.

There is an incredible number of websites out there now so competing against them all probably does need an edge such as an interactive site (where others can provide content on your site). However, you will not be competing against all those sites.

If you have been running business for a while without a website, you probably don’t need thousands of visitors to your site every week to survive. Many service based businesses also don’t need large amounts of traffic as they just need localised traffic.

While an interactive site may be more interesting and may do better than an equivalent static site, it is okay to have a static site. Here are some of my thoughts on static vs interactive sites:

a static site is fine for people needing basic information about your site (e.g. a friend referred me and I need to find your phone number)
a static site is better than an interactive site that is not maintained and looks rushed or empty, so if you don’t have the time or expertise to do an interactive site a static site is still valid option
content is king – having quality, relevant content is critical; keeping it updated and fresh will go a long way to making your site successful
know the purpose of your site and the preferences of your audience – both of these answers will influence the need of more interactivity
after you’ve had a static site for a while, built up some traffic and back links and have an idea of what you’re doing, you can slowly introduce some interactivity – it doesn’t have to be done all at once nor at the start of your site
making your site interactive actually isn’t very hard – making it work well is time consuming and can be challenging

So what do you think – does your website need to be interactive? Do you think all sites should be adding interactive features?

This post is part of Word Constructions’ Setting up a website series
1. having a website helps more than you
2. what’s involved in setting up a website?
3. Learn about web hosting
4. Preparing your initial website content
5. Managing website design 101
6. Choosing a web designer
7. Basic web pages
8. Navigating your site

9. Making web content attractive

10. Understanding keywords

Posted in blogging, web content | Tagged audience, content, interactive, purpose, static, website | 4 Comments

Judging spam comments

Published 12 September, 2011 | By TashWord

Having just deleted another batch of spam from my blog, I thought I’d share how obvious some of it is – and how you can avoid your comments being filtered out as spam.

Flattery is common “this is the best blog”, “you write so well man” and “you must be an expert on this” are some recent examples in my spam folder. Genuine compliments are a good strategy, fake flattery is likely to get your comment deleted quickly
Sounding impressed but never giving any specifics is also a common spam technique so they can use the same message in many blog posts. “I’ve been searching for this information” and “I was just discussing this topic the other day with my cousin” have been in my comments innumerable times; a genuine message would be specific and relevant, such as “I needed to know about clear communications” or “Some friends and I were just discussing keywords“
there is a discrepancy between the name, email address and URL usually means it is spam. If your name is Mary why wouldn’t your email address be mary@ or m.smith@? However, if the domain of email and URL disagree, I refuse to click on the link or accept the comment. So to get comments accepted, be honest and transparent.
multiple links will be picked up by spam filters, but even the inclusion of one link in a comment makes me wary unless I know the person commenting. I look carefully at any comment with a link and decide if it looks safe enough to try the link myself – I certainly won’t accept a link without checking its content. Sometimes I will accept the comment but disable the link first, and I don’t think I’ve ever added a link in a comment I’ve left elsewhere unless they have the ‘latest blog post’ facility provided.
really poor English is often a give away, too – and the ones that are obviously nonsense made up of part sentences should need no explanation. Poor writing of course is not 100% proof of spam so I do read these comments to assess if they are genuine or not. My tip is to make your comments read well to avoid being thought spam and to give your comment more credibility and weight.

Do you have any other tips for spotting spam comments for what they are?

Posted in blogging, business info & tools | Tagged avoid, blog, comments, spam | 3 Comments

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